Off At Last!

Tom, Norma and William (yes that's his name, by common consent!) are finally on our way today. The picture shows William being introduced to our three grandchildren - Silvana, who's holding him, Vaila, sitting on Rona's knee, and Calum, the thoughtful one on the right, not forgetting the fourth grandchild who'll see him on our return in April. All being well the next post will be from South Africa. Meantime we hope you all had a great Christmas and are looking forward to 2008 as much as we are!

A Short Diversion

We know that lots of people have travelled round the world from Shetland (including us 23 years ago) but not many have started by going to Belfast via Edinburgh. As it happened Andrew (son of our friends Margaret and David Kay from Forfar) was getting married in Randalstown near Belfast on December 10th and we got a bid! The day of the wedding was perfect - sunshine, blue skies, a little bit frosty - and the reception in the Dunadry Hotel was outstanding. The food was great, the hotel itself was really impressive, and the ceili band really got the company going. Then the disco came on at just the right time for the older ones to slope off to bed.

Since our only previous visit to Northern Ireland had consisted of driving straight through from Larne to the border (although Norma had been there on a caravan holiday when she was about ten years old) we had decided to stay on a few days to explore. We toured the Antrim coast in a hire car and learned that the coast road was built in the 1830's by an engineer called William Bald from Fife, who just might be in Norma's family tree. We photographed our travelling companion on a windy morning at the Giant's Causeway.

Then we headed down to Down (couldn't resist that!) where we stayed a couple of nights with Mike and Cheryl McClure and family in Castlewellan. Mike is well-known in sea kayaking circles and has been to Shetland a couple of times. With his assistance I was able to test myself against the tides of Strangford Narrows in a Force 6, while Norma explored the St. Patrick Centre in Downpatrick. We also had a drive around the famous Mountains of Mourne and got thoroughly lost in the Castlewellan Peace Maze (we cheated!). On our last day we explored the excellent Ulster Folk Museum then drove straight through Belfast on the motorway to the airport.

Two more things to report - Northern Ireland people are probably the friendliest we've met on our travels (we'd heard that but now we know it's true). And we haven't named the bear yet though we have a few suggestions. There's still time for a few more suggestions before we decide at Christmas. We leave on Thursday 27th.